Org design · People leadership · APAC

Your tools changed. Your org didn't.

Building teams and organisations that actually work in the AI era. I work with founders, COOs, and people leaders at product companies — on how teams are structured, how roles are defined, and how the work actually gets done.

Start a conversation → See the services ↓

Ami Iwakami · Singapore · Global

A colourful row of lollipops on a pink background — a fresh, modern take on people and organisations.

Sound familiar?

01

AI is in your stack. It's not yet in your org.

The strategy was announced. The tools were rolled out. But the roles, the hand-offs, the decisions still work exactly as they did two years ago.

02

The hard people calls shouldn't be made alone.

Who should own what. How to structure a growing team. Whether a role still makes sense. These don't have to be decisions you carry on your own.

03

You need senior people thinking — without the full-time hire.

The complexity is real. The timing isn't right for a full-time leader. And the gap between where you are and where you need to be keeps getting harder to manage.

Services

Two ways of working together — depending on what you need right now.

Offering

AI-Era Org & Role Design

AI has changed what people actually do — but most companies haven't updated how they're organised around it. I help you find where the gaps are, what to change, and how to make it stick without disrupting everything in the process.

We start with a focused diagnostic: where AI is underused or misused in a team, and the realistic capacity you'd unlock by fixing it — turned into insights your leadership team can actually act on. From there, we redesign the roles and workflows that matter, and ship one working pilot to prove the model before you scale it.

Starting conversation
4–6 weeks · most people start here
Working sprint
8–12 weeks · redesign a team or function
Insights & full redesign
3–6 months · organisation-wide
Explore this engagement →
Also available

Embedded People Leadership

Fractional, embedded senior people leadership — the depth of a Head of People, on the days you need it. For teams navigating AI-era change who want senior thinking in the room and someone owning the people agenda, without committing to a full-time hire.

This is also the home for an ongoing relationship, if you'd rather we simply stay in it over time.

Retainer-based
3–12 months
1–3 days/week
scoped to your needs
Start a conversation →

What this looks like

"A focused engagement with a ~30-person customer team surfaced roughly 80 hours a week going to work AI could now carry — and a redesign that gave three people their most senior work back."
Read the thinking behind it →

A different kind of background

Consultant. Operator. Founder.

Ami Iwakami · Singapore

Consulting

Strategy & org design at PwC — the rigour behind the work.

People operations

Built and led people functions inside product companies.

Product & AI

Co-founded an AI product. Fluent in how AI actually changes work.

APAC markets

Operated across eight markets in Asia. Native Japanese.

I built Arias Work because I kept seeing the same thing from the inside: companies brilliant at strategy, and strangely stuck when it came to translating it into how teams actually work. AI has made that gap impossible to ignore — and, handled well, a real opportunity.

I've been a consultant, an operator, and a founder — sometimes all three at once. I've built people functions from the ground up, advised leadership teams through change, and co-founded an AI product. So I know what org challenges look like from inside the room, not just from a slide.

INSEAD MBA · MEng, University of Manchester · EF Founder-in-Residence
English · 日本語 (native) · Español

Read Ami's story →

Tell me what's on your mind.

Reach out — even if you're still figuring out what you need. That's usually where the most useful conversations start.

No pitch decks, no intake forms. Just a conversation.

Currently in a focused building period — but always open to a good conversation.

Or email me directly: hello@ariaswork.com